A pioneer of Quebec journalism, Judith Jasmin was also the first Canadian to make her mark as a prominent reporter and foreign correspondent.

Born in Terrebonne in 1916, Jasmin moved with her family to France in the early 1920s. In 1932, she returned to Quebec amid the global economic crisis and continued her classical studies at the Collège Marguerite-Bourgeoys in Montreal, after which she turned to the theatre.

A beloved radio star, she produced a number of radio shows, including Radio-théâtre, Les voix de mon pays and Entrée des artistes. She joined the International Service of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and was involved in the creation of Radio-Canada's television division. In 1953, she worked with René Lévesque to establish the first news reporting service for Radio-Canada's French television network. She became the first CBC correspondent stationed abroad (Paris, New York and Washington) and the first Canadian female journalist to cover politics and international events. She interviewed some of the greatest artists, writers and intellectuals of the 1950s and 1960s, including Le Corbusier, Josephine Baker, Marguerite Duras and Anne Hébert, as well as several heads of state, including François Duvalier (Haiti) and Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam).

Involved in the creation of the Mouvement laïque de la langue française (1961-69), Jasmin supported the emerging environmental movement, pacifism and the anti-racist movement. She embraced the major causes of the 1960s and, more broadly, of the 20th century.

Poet, director, documentary filmmaker, lyricist, translator, storyteller and teacher of Innu-aimun, Joséphine Bacon is an Innu from Pessamit. A translator-interpreter and teacher of Innu-aimun (the Innu language) for 40 years, she has devoted her life to listening to and passing on the knowledge of Elders. She has also collaborated as writer, director, translator and narrator on numerous documentaries and short films, including those by filmmaker Arthur Lamothe. She has contributed to a number of television productions, including the series Innu Assi (1999), Carcajou (2001), Mupu (2006) and Carcajou Mikun, as well as Finding Our Talk (2008), an online series on the Anishnaabe language. She was nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role for Caroline Monnet's feature film Bootlegger at the Gala Québec Cinéma 2022.

Joséphine Bacon has received a number of awards and distinctions for her contribution to Aboriginal literature and culture, including the Order of Canada, the Ordre national du Québec and the Ordre de Montréal. In December 2021, she was named Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres de France.

Her book Un thé dans la toundra/Nipishapui nete mushuat was a finalist for the Governor General's Award and the Grand Prix du livre de Montréal in 2014. She is Sage at the Université de Montréal and Elder in Residence at UQAM.

A leading Quebec author of international renown and a great ambassador for First Nations culture in Quebec and abroad, she inspires younger generations to be proud of being Aboriginal and to defend their language and culture.

Maude Abbott was a cardiac pathologist and specialist in congenital cardiovascular disease. Born in Saint-André-d'Argenteuil, she was one of the first women to obtain a bachelor of arts degree from McGill University. Denied the right to study medicine there because of her gender, she continued her studies at Bishop's College (now Bishop's University), graduating in medicine in 1894. She received the Senior Prize in Anatomy and the Chancellor's Prize for the highest marks in the final examinations. Abbott then undertook post-graduate studies in Europe, after which she returned to Montreal. She met George Adami, Chairman of McGill's Department of Pathology, and in 1898 he appointed her Assistant Curator of the McGill Medical Museum. In 1901, she began teaching informally, and in 1924 she became the Museum's Senior Curator and developed pathology education. At the same time, Abbott was one of the founders of the Federation of Medical Women of Canada and of the International Association of Medical Museums in 1906. Author of the Atlas of Congenital Heart Disease (1936), a revolutionary work in the field of cardiac research, she paved the way for women in medicine and laid the foundations for modern cardiac surgery.

Born in Montreal, Octavia Grace Ritchie was a Canadian suffragette and the first Quebec woman to obtain a medical degree (Bishop's University, 1892). After studying at the Montreal High School for Girls, where she achieved excellent grades, she was admitted to McGill University in 1884 along with Rosalie McLea, Alice Murray and Helen Reid. Their admission made McGill the first university in Quebec to accept women.

The third Quebec woman to become a doctor, Ritchie practised gynecology. In 1896, she became an active member of the Montreal Local Council of Women, where she was particularly involved in maternal and child health issues. She was also active in the International Council of Women, representing Canada at its congress in Rome in 1914. President of the local women's council when the Borden government granted the right to vote only to relatives of servicemen, she denounced this measure as discriminatory, a controversial stance that met with strong opposition from some member associations. At the end of her term of office as president (1911-17), she led the Provincial Committee for Women's Suffrage’s fight for women’s right to vote. She ran as a Liberal candidate in the 1930 federal election in the riding of Mont-Royal.

Reformer, feminist activist and politician, Thérèse Casgrain was one of the key figures in the fight for women’s right to vote and run for office in Quebec.

Engaged in politics, she co-founded the Provincial Committee for Women’s Suffrage in 1922. By 1929, she established the League for Women’s Rights (LDF), which continued the fight alongside the association created by Idola Saint-Jean, the Canadian Alliance for Women’s Suffrage in Quebec. She participated in the work of the Dorion Commission, calling for a number of changes to married women’s legal status, and hosted the radio show Fémina on Radio-Canada.

Throughout the 1930s, Casgrain played a decisive role in the battle for women’s suffrage. In 1938, while serving as vice-president of the Liberal Women’s Club of Canada, she led a significant delegation of women to the Quebec Liberal Party’s congress and succeeded in getting women’s suffrage included in the party’s electoral platform. In 1940, the government of Adélard Godbout passed legislation granting women the right to vote and stand for election to the Legislative Assembly. She is recognized as one of the main architects of this victory for Quebec women.

In the 1940s and 1950s, Casgrain ran for office in nine provincial and federal elections, though she was never elected. In 1946, she ran as a candidate for the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), the predecessor of the New Democratic Party (NDP), of which she became president and later leader of the Quebec wing. She was the first Canadian woman to hold such a position.

A prominent figure in the defence of women’s rights, Thérèse Casgrain was also involved in other causes and charitable works and became a senator for the Mille-Îles district (1970-71).

Born in Montreal, Denise Desautels is a writer committed to the literary scene in Quebec and the wider French-speaking world. Her books reflect her awareness of being a woman writer and her passion for the other arts. The creator of several radio dramas, including Voix, which won awards from French-language public radio stations, she has published over fifty works, including collections of poems, stories and artists' books, which have earned her numerous distinctions, including the Governor General's Award of Canada, the Grand Prix de poésie Québecor from the Festival international de la poésie, the career grant from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, the Prix de littérature francophone Jean-Arp and the Prix Athanase-David. The first Quebecer to be published in the Poésie/Gallimard collection, with L'angle noir de la joie followed by D'où surgit parfois un bras d'horizon, she received the Prix Apollinaire 2022 for Disparaître, written around 11 works by Sylvie Cotton (L'herbe qui tremble and Le Noroît). L'espoir peut-être, published in March 2024 by Atelier des noyers, is accompanied by works by Lithuanian artist Erika Povilonytė, as were her two previous books. In April 2025, Elle, Ulysse will be published by Noroît, with works by Stéphanie Béliveau.

Denise Desautels, whose work has been translated into several languages, is a member of the Comité Femmes of the Centre québécois du P.E.N. international and of the Parlement des écrivaines francophones. A member of the Académie des lettres du Québec since 1995 and of the Order of Canada since 2014, she was named Knight of the Ordre national du Québec in 2022.

After studying law at the Université de Montréal and the University of Ottawa, the Honourable Louise Arbour, C.C., G.O.Q., taught at Osgoode Hall Law School. She was appointed to the Supreme Court of Ontario in 1987 and to the Ontario Court of Appeal in 1990. In 1996, the United Nations Security Council appointed Ms. Arbour Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. In this capacity, she secured the first conviction for genocide (Rwanda) since the 1948 Genocide Convention and the first indictment for war crimes of a sitting European head of state (Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic).

She resigned as Chief Prosecutor to accept an appointment to the Supreme Court of Canada in 1999. In 2004, she was appointed United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and in 2017, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for International Migration.

In 2021, she was appointed to lead an independent review of sexual misconduct in the Canadian Armed Forces.

Ms. Arbour has also served as a judge ad hoc at the International Court of Justice and was a member of the Ministerial Advisory Group on Canada's Defence Policy Review.

Ms. Arbour has received numerous awards and honorary doctorates. She has been a Companion of the Order of Canada since 2007, a Grand Officer of the Ordre national du Québec since 2009, a Commander of the Légion d'honneur and a Commander of the Order of Montreal. She is currently a senior associate at Borden Ladner Gervais.

Recognized as one of Canada's most talented actresses, performing in both English and French, Monique Mercure, née Émond, was equally at home on stage and on screen.

Born into a family that valued the arts, she studied cello at the Vincent-d'Indy school and with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, as well as dance with Ludmilla Chiriaeff. After separating from her husband, composer Pierre Mercure, in 1958, she devoted herself to acting, studying with Jacques Lecoq in Paris and at the Montreal Drama Studio. Her acting career then took off, covering both classical and modern repertoires. Monique Mercure's interpretations of Brecht's characters were exceptional, but she also created some of Michel Tremblay's most memorable roles, from Les belles-soeurs to Albertine en cinq temps and L’impromptu d’Outremont.

Not to be outdone, her film career left its mark on Quebec cinema from the early 1960s until her death. From À tout prendre in 1963 to Deux femmes en or in 1970, her work literally mirrored the development of the Quebec film industry. Her performance as Rose-Aimée Martin in J. A. Martin photographe (1976), which won her the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival, brought her international recognition. In so doing, she made a major contribution to the development of Quebec and Canadian cinema.

Internationally acclaimed singer-songwriter Lhasa de Sela was a world music artist, composer, musical director, performer, producer and painter. Born in Big Indian in the U.S., she sang in Spanish, French and English. Her career was launched with her first album recorded in Spanish, La Llorona (1997).

She began singing jazz and Billie Holiday songs on stage at a Greek café in San Francisco at the age of 13. In 1991, she joined her sisters in Montreal, where she performed in bars.

Her album La Llorona, the fruit of her collaboration with Yves Desrosiers and several other artists, kick-started her career. Selling 50,000 copies, the album was certified Gold in Canada in 1998. It won Lhasa the 1997 Félix Award for Quebec Artist — World Music and a Juno Award for Best Overall Album in 1998; she was also nominated for the same award in the Best New Solo Artist category. Lhasa's songs deal with themes of love, abandonment and flight and feature Greek, Peruvian, Klezmer, Roma and country sounds.

Monique Leyrac, née Tremblay, was an internationally renowned Quebec actress and singer.

Born into a modest family and forced to work in a factory at an early age, she took drama lessons with Jeanne Maubourg that changed her life. As an actress, she played in a number of films and TV series in French and English, in addition to making her mark on the theatrical scene with a vast repertoire ranging from Molière to Brecht. But it was above all as a singer that she wrote her name into legend as the “diva” of Quebec song.

She lived in Paris in the early 1950s and launched her career in Montreal at the famous “Au faisan doré” cabaret, where she performed alongside Charles Aznavour and Charles Trenet. She became one of the first people to promote compositions, including “L'hiver,” “Il en est passé” and “Il n'y a pas de bout du monde,” by Quebec songwriters such as Gilles Vigneault and Claude Léveillée, to whom she later dedicated her first album (1963). That year, she won first prize in the international Chansons sur mesure competition with Sylvain Lelièvre's “Les amours anciennes.”

Her victory at the 1965 Sopot International Song Festival in Poland, where she performed Vigneault's “Mon pays,” took her to stages the world over, from the Paris Olympia to New York's Carnegie Hall. A performer of great intensity and formidable intelligence, she contributed to the musicalization of the works of Quebec poets such as Émile Nelligan.

Monique Leyrac is unanimously recognized as one of Canada's leading interpreters of French-language and many other great songs and as a reference for the genre.

A shopkeeper and single mother of six, Ida Steinberg was the founder of Steinberg Grocery Stores, Canada's largest supermarket chain.

After immigrating from Hungary, Ida Steinberg separated from her husband. Needing to provide for her children, she opened a small grocery store on Boulevard Saint-Laurent in the heart of a neighbourhood bustling with Jewish life. With the help of her son Samuel, and later all her other sons, she succeeded in expanding her business nationwide. Steinberg grocery stores dominated the Quebec grocery market, becoming so popular that French speakers used the expression “faire son Steinberg” as a synonym for “faire son épicerie” [go grocery shopping]. In 1934, Ida Steinberg became the first person to develop the supermarket concept, later opening branches in Ontario and New Brunswick. As a businesswoman, she ventured into real estate under the company name Ivanhoe Investments and became the owner of several shopping centres. At the end of her life, she headed a company with 23 supermarkets.

By the 1980s, competition from Metro and Provigo and rising costs were having a major impact on the company. In 1989, Steinberg was bought out by the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. Then, in 1992, the chain declared bankruptcy and was bought out by Metro and Provigo. To this day, Ida Steinberg is considered a pioneer in her field, and the first Steinberg grocery store has left its mark on the city's history.

Born in Berlin, Ludmilla Chiriaeff was a professional dancer, choreographer, teacher and company director who changed the face of dance in Quebec.

She took her first dance lessons at the age of six. Her career with the Berlin Opera Ballet was interrupted by the Second World War. After founding her first dance company in Switzerland, she moved to Montreal in 1952. She founded Les Ballets Chiriaeff, which gave its first performances on Radio-Canada in 1955, and went on to appear in about 100 programs. In 1955, Les Ballets Chiriaeff became an official dance company, Les Grands Ballets canadiens. It was the first professional ballet company in Quebec and remains active today. Next, she founded the Académie des Grands Ballets canadiens, a school with a recreational and teacher training program. In 1966-67, she founded the École supérieure de danse des Grands Ballets at the request of the Quebec Ministry of Cultural Affairs. In 1979, the school became the École supérieure de danse du Québec, the only school accredited to train professional dancers.

Chiriaeff then surrounded herself with experienced choreographers, including Fernand Nault and Anton Dolin. She pursued her mission of dance education by creating ballet concentration programs (École Pierre-Laporte) and professional dance training programs (Cégep du Vieux Montréal and École Laurier). By recruiting the province's finest dancers, it ensured the training of future generations of performers. In 1981, she created the Maison de la danse, a long-standing project that would make a significant contribution to Quebec culture.

Actress, journalist, director and theatre manager, Mercedes Palomino enjoyed a brilliant artistic career. With her partner Yvette Brind'Amour, she founded the Théâtre du Rideau Vert, which she co-directed for 45 years.

Born in Barcelona, Palomino trained at the Argentine Conservatory of Dramatic Arts before working in Chile and Peru. She then joined the Columbia Broadcasting Corporation in New York, working for the Chaîne des Amériques. In 1947, she became correspondent for the arts section of La Prensa de Lima newspaper in Paris. In 1948, she moved to Montreal. On November 30, she and Yvette Brind'Amour founded the Théâtre du Rideau Vert, the first permanent theatre in French Canada.

The theatre made a name for itself with its bold choices: it premiered Lillian Hellman's drama Les innocentes, a play about female homosexuality, at the Théâtre des Compagnons. In 1968, Brind'Amour and Palomino put on Michel Tremblay's Les belles-soeurs, a play that broke with the conventions of the time by including all-female characters, social and religious criticism, and the use of Joual, the vernacular language of French Canada.

From the outset, the Théâtre du Rideau Vert stood out for the great variety of its programming, presenting masterpieces of both classical and contemporary theatre as well as numerous Quebec and Canadian plays. After occupying a few different premises, the troupe moved to rue Saint-Denis for good in 1960.

Mercedes Palomino left a profound mark on Montreal society and on the life of the performing arts in Quebec.

Actress, director and theatre manager Yvette Brind’Amour enjoyed a remarkable artistic career. With her partner Mercedes Palomino, she founded the Théâtre du Rideau Vert, which she co-directed for 45 years.

Born Marguerite Marie Yvette Brind'Amour into a wealthy family, she trained in dance and drama with Yvonne Duckett (Madame Audet) in Montreal and with René Simon and Charles Dullin in France. On her return to Quebec, she helped found Pierre Dagenais' Théâtre de l'Équipe (1943-48).

On November 30, 1948, she and Mercedes Palomino founded the Théâtre du Rideau Vert, the first permanent theatre in French Canada. The company made a name for itself with its bold choices: it premiered Lillian Hellman's drama Les innocentes, a play about female homosexuality, at the Théâtre des Compagnons. In 1968, Brind'Amour and Palomino put on Michel Tremblay's Les belles-soeurs, a play that broke with the conventions of the time by incorporating all-female characters, social and religious criticism, and Joual, the vernacular language of French Canada.

From the outset, the Théâtre du Rideau Vert stood out for the great variety of its programming, presenting masterpieces of both classical and contemporary theatre as well as numerous Quebec and Canadian plays. After occupying a number of premises, the company moved to rue Saint-Denis for good in 1960.

With her remarkable career and many talents, Yvette Brind'Amour left a lasting mark on Montreal society and on the performing arts in Quebec.

A singer, songwriter and actress of great renown, Pauline Julien was one of the cultural icons of Quebec chanson and Quebec nationalism.

Touching and energetic, she made her theatrical debut in Quebec City and then moved to Montreal in 1948. In 1951, she moved to Paris with her partner, actor Jacques Galipeau, and joined the vibrant artistic scene of the City of Light.

Her singing career took off in 1955, when she began performing in the cabarets and boîtes à chansons of Paris's Left Bank. She sang lyrics by the great French songwriters, including Léo Ferré and Boris Vian, and made friends with a number of artists. In the early 1960s, she moved back permanently to Montreal, where she recorded her first two albums, Enfin...Pauline Julien (1962) and Pauline Julien (1963). Performances with Claude Gauthier and Claude Léveillée and appearances on television programs contributed to her fame. In the late 1960s, she decided to sing only lyrics by Quebec writers, after which she began writing her own material. Until the 1980s, she performed in major venues in Quebec and Europe, played a few film roles, and returned to the stage.

Pauline Julien was an emblematic figure of Quebec nationalism, a cause to which she was committed throughout her life, notably alongside her husband, poet and politician Gérald Godin. She recorded 23 solo albums in the course of her career.

Alanis Obomsawin is a Native American-Canadian artist from the Abenaki nation in Quebec and is one of Canada's most prominent documentary filmmakers.

Born in 1932 in New Hampshire, on traditional Abenaki territory near Lebanon, she grew up on the Odanak reserve in Quebec. At the age of 10, she moved to Trois-Rivières with her mother. As the only Indigenous family in the neighbourhood, and with limited French and no knowledge of English, mother and daughter felt isolated. When her father passed away, Alanis, then 12 years old, rebelled against bullying and the promotion of White cultural superiority at school. As an adult, she lived in Florida, where she studied English, before settling in Montreal.

In 1960, she began her career as a singer at New York’s Town Hall. She went on to make several public appearances on reserves, at festivals, and on television. In 1966, she appeared on the CBC show Telescope because of her tireless efforts to fund a swimming pool for the Odanak reserve, as the local river was deemed to be too polluted. Her repertoire includes traditional Indigenous songs and stories told in both English and French. Her album Bush Lady (1984) powerfully showcases her musical and artistic style.

She started her career at the National Film Board (NFB) in 1967 as a consultant for a film about Indigenous people. Over the years, she has directed more than sixty documentaries while continuing her activism for her people.

In 2023, the NFB released Alanis Obomsawin: A Legacy, a DVD box set featuring 28 of her films. In 2024, the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal dedicated an exhibition to her.

A painter and an important figure in contemporary Quebec art, Marcelle Ferron specialized in stained glass.

From 1942 to 1944, she studied at the École des beaux-arts de Québec, where Jean Paul Lemieux was a fellow student. She left the school following a disagreement and moved to Montreal-Sud in search of inspiration for her painting. It was there that she discovered the work of painter Paul-Émile Borduas; it was a true revelation. She became a member of the Automatistes, the artistic movement he founded.

She first exhibited publicly in 1947 at the 64th annual Spring Salon organized by the Art Association of Montreal. In 1948, with other members of the Automatistes group, she signed the Refus global manifesto, marking a groundbreaking moment in Quebec's cultural history. She exhibited with the Automatistes starting in 1951, as part of Étapes du vivant. She held her first solo exhibition at the Tranquille bookstore in 1949.

In 1953, she moved to Paris, where she dedicated herself to drawing and painting for 13 years. In 1964, she began studying the art of stained glass at Michel Blum's workshop. She returned to Quebec in 1966 and taught at Université Laval from 1967 to 1988.

One of her most famous stained glass works is located at the Champ-de-Mars metro station in Montreal. It was one of the first non-figurative pieces to be installed in the metro. Other urban works can be found at Vendôme station, Hôpital Sainte-Justine, the ICAO headquarters in Montreal, and the Samuel Bronfman Pavilion at Concordia University.

Sui Sin Far, the pen name of Edith Maud Eaton, was one of the continent's first writers of Chinese origin. She wrote about the Chinese in North America.

Stenographer, journalist and writer, Edith Maud Eaton was born in Prestbury, England, in 1865. The eldest daughter of an Englishman and a Chinese woman with 14 children, she immigrated with her family to Hudson, New York, and then to Montreal in the early 1870s, when her family became so poor that she had to leave school to go to work. She sold her artist father's paintings and her own lacework door to door to support her parents.

At 18, she landed a job as a stenographer with the Montreal Daily Star. In 1888, she began publishing her own material in the Dominion Illustrated. Stricken with heart dilatation, she went on to freelance and lived for a time on the American West Coast, then in Boston, before returning to her family.

Having experienced discrimination herself, she became concerned about the situation of the Chinese in North America. Under the pseudonym Sui Sin Far (meaning “narcissus”), she published columns and stories about Chinese and Eurasians in Montreal newspapers. From the inside, she painted a realistic and sensitive portrait of that community, while combating Westerners’ prejudices about it. Her writing was published in a number of American newspapers and enjoyed a wide circulation. A collection of her texts, presented as a “novel,” was published under the title Mrs. Spring Fragrance (Chicago, 1912).

Heather O'Neill is a Canadian novelist, poet, short story writer, screenwriter and journalist and is widely regarded as one of the most notable writers of her generation.

Born in Montreal in 1973, she spent the first part of her childhood there, but after her parents' divorce, she lived with her mother in the southern United States for several years. She later returned to Montreal, where she continued her studies at Dawson College and McGill University.

The Red Light District, where she grew up, inspired many of her characters: a joyful gang of poet children, sad clowns, prostitute-gangsters, orphan entrepreneurs and other romantic outcasts. In 2006, she published her first novel, Lullabies for Little Criminals (La ballade de Baby), which became a bestseller. The book has won or been nominated for several national and international literary awards. A huge success in Canada, it also became a bestseller internationally. She followed this with a second novel, The Girl Who Was Saturday Night (2014), a short story collection entitled Daydreams of Angels (2015), and a third novel, The Lonely Hearts Hotel (2017). These three works were translated into French by Quebec writer and translator Dominique Fortier. O'Neill has also published essays in The New York Times Magazine, The Guardian, Elle, Châtelaine, The Globe and Mail and The Walrus. In addition, her essays have been featured on the radio show This American Life and on CBC Radio. In the spring of 2019, O'Neill graced the cover of LQ (Lettres québécoises).

Louise Roy, O.C., O.Q., C.O.M., has held several leadership positions in the fields of urban and air transportation and the communications industry. She was notably the CEO of the Société de transport de Montréal (1985-92), Executive Vice-President of the Americas at Air France in Paris (1994-97), CEO of Telemedia Communications Inc. (1997-2000), and Executive Vice-President of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) (2000-2003).

Ms. Roy has been a guest fellow at CIRANO since 2003 and has chaired the board of directors of this public policy research centre since 2012. She served as Chancellor and Chair of the Board of the Université de Montréal from 2008 to 2018 and was named Chancellor Emeritus in 2018. She is currently a member of the board of the Opéra de Montréal and chairs the board of the Montreal International Musical Competition.

She has served on the boards of various other companies and chaired the board of the Conseil des arts de Montréal (2006-2012). She has also been a director of Montréal International and Aéroports de Montréal (ADM).

Ms. Roy holds a B.Sc. in Sociology from the Université de Montréal and a Master's degree in the same discipline from the University of Wisconsin, where she also did doctoral coursework. She has received several distinctions recognizing her contributions in the economic and sociopolitical fields. In 2009, she was named an officer of the Order of Quebec, and, in 2012, an officer of the Order of Canada. She was also named one of the 100 most influential Canadian women in 2013. In 2018, she was made a commander of the City of Montreal.

Throughout her career, Louise Roy has broken many "glass ceilings" in business and governance. Her career serves as an inspiration to women in these fields.

The most influential French-Canadian feminist of the early 20th century, Marie Gérin-Lajoie was born in Montreal into a family that fostered her social and political commitment. Her sister Justine Lacoste-Beaubien co-founded Hôpital Sainte-Justine, an institution of which she was president for nearly sixty years, and her sister Thaïs Lacoste-Frémont, a journalist and lecturer, also campaigned for women's rights.

Introduced to charity by her mother and to law books by her father, she became aware of the inferior status of married women. In 1902, she published Traité de droit usuel, a treatise highlighting the legal limitations faced by married women. In 1893, she joined the Montreal Local Council of Women, heading its legislative committee and participating on other activities. She co-founded the Comité des dames patronnesses de l'Association Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Montréal, then the Fédération nationale Saint-Jean-Baptiste, of which she was president from 1913 to 1933. She founded La bonne parole, the federation's journal. In addition to fighting for the right to vote municipally, provincially and federally, Gérin-Lajoie took part in all the other feminist struggles of her time: for the creation of the first classical college for girls, which opened in 1908; for women's access to the professions (including law); for passage of legislation setting a minimum wage for women; and for reform of the Civil Code.

A pioneer in the field of social charity, Yvonne Maisonneuve, nicknamed “Mother Yvonne,” founded the Institut Notre-Dame-de-la-Protection (renamed Le Chaînon in 1978) in 1932. The organization helped needy Montreal women and their children. She devoted herself to the cause with dedication and determination for 30 years.

Yvonne Maisonneuve, née Yvonne Célanire Maisonneuve, was born in Montreal in 1903. She grew up in Côte-des-Neiges, studied with the Sisters of the Holy Cross and was recognized for her faith and gift for playing the organ. She lost her mother at the age of 11 and had to help her father, a blacksmith, by looking after her three little sisters. In 1932, at the age of 29, she founded the Notre-Dame-de-la-Protection association at 366 Fairmount Street, an initiative inspired by the Comité des chômeuses à collet blanc, which was looking for a “serious, charitable and dynamic” young woman to launch the venture. As of 1938, many of the faithful joined her mission, accompanying her as volunteers. In 1940, after several moves, she settled permanently on De La Gauchetière Street. In eight years, she succeeded in helping more than 3,500 women.

At a time when social institutions were run by religious establishments, she managed to do social charity work without joining a religious body but with the support of Cardinal Paul-Émile Léger, who provided her with a decree of canonical approval. As a result, the City of Montreal footed the $40,000 bill for renovations to the house at 101 De La Gauchetière Street. Subsequently, thanks to the support of its benefactors, the institution was able to continue its activities, moving to 4373 De l'Esplanade Avenue, a building now classified as a historic monument, before opening a branch in Quebec City.

Today, Le Chaînon remains a leading resource for vulnerable women in Montreal.

Anna Greenup, née Hurd, was co-founder and first president of the Coloured Women's Club of Montreal. In 1902, she helped found the first Black women's organization in Canada and became its president.

Born in 1874 in Harveysburg, a small abolitionist village that was the site of the first free school for Black children, Greenup attended school until she was 14 before becoming a teacher. In 1900, she married Charles Harvey Greenup in Ontario. He worked in various jobs in the railroad industry. The couple settled in Faubourg Saint-Antoine, today's Little Burgundy, a neighbourhood where many English-speaking Black families lived because of its proximity to the railroad stations where sleeping car porters worked.

Black people suffered discrimination in employment, housing, stores, places of worship and access to services. Black women, for their part, were not allowed to join organizations run by White women. To meet the needs of their community, seven African-American women came together in 1902 to form the Women's Club of Montreal, which was renamed the Coloured Women's Club of Montreal (CWCM) in 1904. The first Black women's organization in Canada, it followed in the footsteps of the National Association of Colored Women, founded in the United States in 1896.

Anna Greenup became CWCM's first president. The organization made arrangements for the reception and housing of Boer War veterans and provided ongoing assistance to immigrants of Caribbean and African-American origin. As of 1907, several CWCM members helped found the Union Congregational Church (now the Union United Church), the first large church for Montreal's Black community.

Daisy Peterson Sweeney was a pianist and piano teacher who became an emblematic figure in Little Burgundy's Afro-Montreal community.

Born into a family of Caribbean origin, she was the daughter of a porter who worked on Canadian Pacific trains. Not wanting his children to remain confined to this type of job, he bought a piano and insisted that they learn it. His daughter Daisy would be the one to fill in for him when his job prevented him from giving lessons to the kids. She even enrolled in music studies at McGill University, having to work at various manual jobs to finance her studies. She developed a vast repertoire, both classical and popular. She gave piano lessons to hundreds of children in her community, either privately or at the Negro Community Centre. In this way, she nurtured the musical vocation of many, including the famous jazz pianists Oscar Peterson (her brother) and Oliver Jones. A church organist, she founded the Union United Church’s Black Community Youth Choir, which has since become the Montreal Jubilation Gospel Choir. Winner of the Martin Luther King Award from the Black Theatre Workshop and holder of an honorary doctorate from Laurentian University, she is immortalized in a mural, and a street and park in the Sud-Ouest borough have been named after her.

A schoolteacher turned journalist, Gabrielle Roy was one of the most influential writers in French-Canadian literature and one of the great contemporary writers on the human condition.

She was born in Saint-Boniface in 1909 and died in Quebec City in 1983. The youngest of 11 children, she grew up in an environment of increasing discrimination against Manitoba's French-speaking minority. Suffering from physical problems as a child, she struggled at St. Joseph's Academy, but by seventh grade she had become a model student.

After starting out as a schoolteacher in Saint-Boniface and then working as an actress, she embarked on a career in journalism, reporting from the working-class district of Saint-Henri in Montreal. This inspired her to write Bonheur d’occasion (1945), a novel depicting working-class Montreal during the Second World War. The first urban novel in Quebec literature, Bonheur d’occasion marked the emergence of modernity in the heart of the city and was a phenomenal success. Translated into about fifteen languages, it also enjoyed international success.

Gabrielle Roy's work includes some thirty books: novels, collections, stories and an autobiography. It has received critical acclaim and has also been appreciated by the public at large. Her sensitivity to the destiny of Franco-Manitobans and her intrinsic link with Quebec make her work an essential part of Quebec and Canadian French-language literature.

In 1987, the writer's childhood home in Saint-Boniface was designated a Manitoba Historic Site. In 2003, it became a museum under the name Maison Gabrielle-Roy. The writer was declared a National Historic Person in 2009 and a Manitoba Woman Trailblazer in 2021.

Françoise Sullivan is a multidisciplinary artist and one of the pioneers of her generation. Her long and prolific career spans eight decades.

Born in Montreal in 1923, she was encouraged by her parents to develop her artistic talents. She enrolled at the École des beaux-arts at the age of 16. She became one of the founding members of the Automatistes group and a signatory to Paul-Émile Borduas's Refus global manifesto, which marked the beginning of artistic modernity in Quebec. In her early years, she distinguished herself as a dancer and choreographer, studying dance in New York with Martha Graham (1945) and producing the celebrated “Danse dans la neige” (1948). She then devoted herself successively to sculpture, conceptual art and finally painting, a medium in which she continues to be engaged. She has also produced a large number of performance and installation works, as well as photographs. Her versatility and constancy reflect a quest for movement, improvisation and a relationship with her environment.

In addition to numerous solo and group exhibitions in Canada, the U.S. and Europe, she participated in the exhibition “On Line at MoMA” (New York, 2010) and in the exhibition “Surrealism Beyond Borders” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (2021-22) and at the Tate Modern in London (2022). She is the recipient of many prestigious awards, including the Governor General's Award in Visual Arts and the Order of Canada.

Born into a family of Romanian origin, Betty Roodish Goodwin was a renowned multidisciplinary artist. She studied design from an early age but remained largely self-taught. Her career as a professional artist began in earnest in the late 1940s, when she branched out into a wide range of artistic practices, including collage, painting, sculpture, drawing and engraving. During the first two decades of her career, she mainly painted still lifes and scenes of Montreal's Jewish community. Her encounter with Yves Gaucher in 1968 prompted her to reinvent herself and, above all, her printmaking, notably by incorporating pieces of fabric and other found objects. She then moved on to sculpture and, from the 1980s onward, concentrated more on drawing with mixed media.

Betty Goodwin's work reveals a preoccupation with memory, the traces people leave behind, their loss and the emotional anguish that ensues, the fragility of human life and the incommunicability between beings. Her career was marked by the premature death of her father when she was only nine and that of her son from an overdose at the age of 30. Betty Goodwin's work has won several awards and can be found in numerous public and private collections.

Poet, novelist and essayist Nicole Brossard was born in Montreal, where she still lives. Since 1965, she has published over forty books, including Le désert mauve, Musée de l'os et de l'eau and La lettre aérienne. Most of her books have been translated into several languages. Her writings have influenced an entire generation. She is co-founder of the literary magazine La Barre du jour and the feminist journal Les Têtes de pioche, co-author of the Anthologie de la poésie des femmes au Québec and co-writer of the film Some American Feminists. She was a member of the collective behind the play La nef des sorcières, and it was at her invitation that the group La Théorie, un dimanche was born.

She is a member of the Académie des lettres du Québec, Knight of the Ordre de la Pléiade de la Francophonie, Officer of the Order of Canada, Knight of the Ordre national du Québec and Companion of the Ordre des arts et des lettres du Québec. In addition, she has received a number of literary awards for her body of work, including the Governor General's Award in 1974 and 1984 and the Athanase-David, Griffin and Gilles-Corbeil awards. Her most recent books are Temps réel du poème (Grand Prix de la Maison de poésie de Paris, 2023) and L'entaille et la durée (Essais 1969-2019).

A Russian-born woman of the theatre, Dora Wasserman played a key role in the development of the Théâtre yiddish de Montréal, which in 2017 was the first Yiddish theatre to celebrate its centenary.

Born into a modest family, Wasserman studied at Moscow's Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory. She joined the Moscow Jewish Theatre (GOSET), where she trained for four years with great masters, including Solomon Mikhoels. After the Second World War, she emigrated with her family to Montreal. In 1958, with the help of Gratien Gélinas, she formed the Yiddish Drama Group (now the Théâtre yiddish de Montréal), which staged Yiddish classics by renowned playwrights including Sholem Aleichem, Sholem Asch and Aaron Megge.

In 1967, the newly opened Saidye-Bronfman Centre for the Arts became the permanent home of Dora Wasserman's Yiddish theatre. The following year, she began working with composer Eli Rubinstein, and this enabled her to stage large-scale musicals and breathe new life into her troupe. In 1974, she began collaborating with writer and playwright Isaac Bashevis Singer on the theatrical adaptation of his stories. Four years later, Singer was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature (1978). In 1992, Wasserman directed Michel Tremblay's Les belles-sœurs in Yiddish, and the play was a huge success. She was a recipient of the Order of Canada and an award from the Académie québécoise du théâtre.

Born in Montreal into a petit bourgeois family, Idola Saint-Jean was a journalist, educator and feminist. In 1930, she was the first French-speaking Quebec woman to run in a federal election as an independent Liberal in the riding of Montréal-Dorion-Saint-Denis. For women, she blazed a trail in politics that would later be followed by Thérèse Casgrain.

Saint-Jean studied drama and frequented the city's literary circles. Single, she earned her living teaching French at McGill University and the Mechanics' Institute and also gave diction classes at the Monument-National theatre. In the early 1920s, she was one of the provincial committee delegates who took part in the first “pilgrimage” to Quebec City to demand women's suffrage.

Because of her egalitarian ideas and her sensitivity to the condition of working women, Saint-Jean founded the Canadian Alliance for Quebec Women's Suffrage in 1927, and she led the association until her death. She wrote a column in the Montreal Herald, virulently denouncing the economic, social and political inferiority of Quebec women. She also spoke out on issues affecting them in La sphère féminine, her annual publication, and on the radio, a new communication tool that suffragettes used extensively. In addition to fighting for the vote, her association took part in the hearings of the Dorion Commission, examining the legal status of married women, and those of the MacMillan Commission, studying the Canadian banking system in 1934.

Ethel (Gertrude) Stark was a renowned violinist and conductor.

She took her first violin lessons with Alfred De Sève and went on to study at the McGill Conservatory. She was the first Canadian to be awarded a major scholarship to the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, where she studied from 1928 to 1934. Her career was just beginning. She performed with several symphony orchestras, and in 1934 she became the first Canadian soloist to appear on a U.S. broadcast, playing Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto. In addition to her solo career, she conducted orchestras. In 1940, she founded the Montreal Women's Symphony, Canada's first all-female orchestra, which she conducted until the late 1960s. Over the years, she founded other ensembles, including the New York Women's Chamber Orchestra (1938) and the Ethel-Stark Symphonietta (1954). Invited to conduct other orchestras, she distinguished herself with symphony orchestras in Quebec, Toronto, Jerusalem, Miami and Japan. Taking advantage of the rise of radio, she took part in over 300 broadcasts in Canada, the United States and Europe. She also taught music at the Catholic University of Washington (1951), the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal (1952-63) and Concordia University (1974-75). Virtuoso, conductor, music scene leader and teacher, Ethel Stark helped bring classical music into the feminist era.

Neila Mezghani holds a degree in telecommunications engineering and a graduate diploma in information technology from the Higher School of Telecommunications in Tunis. She also has an advanced studies diploma (equivalent to a Master’s degree) in signal processing from the National School of Engineers of Tunis. In 2000, she embarked on doctoral studies at the INRS – Energy, Materials, and Telecommunications Centre in Montreal, where she focused on artificial intelligence and computer vision.

Dr. Mezghani is currently a full professor at TÉLUQ University and a researcher at the Research Centre of the Université de Montréal Hospital Centre (CRCHUM). As director of the Institute of Applied Artificial Intelligence (I2A), she leads research and innovation initiatives based on a transdisciplinary approach.

Since 2016, she has held the Canada Research Chair in Biomedical Data Analysis, a distinction that recognizes the excellence of her work and her significant contributions to scientific innovation. Her research focuses on the development of predictive models and machine learning algorithms for designing decision support systems to facilitate personalized patient care and improve evidence-based medical practices.

She is the author of two patents and over 150 publications in renowned scholarly journals and proceedings of international conferences. Her work contributes to the advancement of knowledge with societal impacts. Her research has concrete applications in several fields, including healthcare, education and biology.

For over three decades, Maria Barile defended the rights of people with disabilities. Born in Italy in 1953, she arrived in Quebec in 1963, at the age of 11. After graduating from Dawson College, where she created the first support group for students with disabilities, she spent a year preparing for admission to McGill University. In doing so, she had to convince the school's administration that a hearing impairment and neurological disorder would not prevent her from continuing her studies. She completed one year of university with excellent marks. She went on to obtain a Bachelor's degree in social sciences, followed by a master's degree in the same field.

Along with 16 other women, she founded the Disabled Women's Network of Canada. She was also one of the founders of Action des femmes handicapées (Montreal), the Regroupement des activistes pour l'inclusion au Québec (RAPLIQ) and Éco-Accès.

Maria Barile published extensively on the themes of disability, feminism and technology. Committed to her field, she gave workshops and lectures on disability issues. She also presented briefs to various government commissions on the use of Depo-Provera, violence and other issues affecting women with disabilities.

Novelist, essayist and translator, Gail Scott is a major figure in women’s writing, emerging from the post-feminist revolution that gained momentum in Quebec in the 1980s.

Born in Ottawa, she grew up in a rural, bilingual community in Eastern Ontario. She studied literature at Queen’s University and the University of Grenoble before settling in Montreal in 1967, where she became involved in the leftist and independence movements of the 1980s. She is one of the pioneers of experimental writing in poetic prose and the New Narrative movement, which emerged in San Francisco in the late 1970s and emphasized subjective experience through the fragmentation of forms and narrative structures. An Anglophone engaged in Quebec's political and literary movements, she co-published La théorie, un dimanche (1988) with Louky Bersianik, Nicole Brossard, Louise Cotnoir, Louise Dupré and France Théoret, and she translated the works of Quebec writers France Théoret, Lise Tremblay and Michael Delisle. She taught creative writing at the University of Montreal for 15 years.

Her prose works are laboratories for crafting narratives about cities beyond the borders of language, gender and sex. They include Heroine (1987), a novel addressing radical politics and art in the turbulent Montreal of the 1980s; The Obituary (2010, Grand Prix du Livre de Montréal 2011), a fractured narrative about suppressed diversity in post-millennial Quebec; and Furniture Music (2023, Mavis Gallant Prize), about life in Lower Manhattan during the Obama era. Gail Scott is the recipient of several literary fellowships and awards.

Rachel (Rokhl) Häring Korn was one of the major women poets in 20th-century Yiddish literature. The author of numerous works of poetry and prose, Korn played a decisive role in the Yiddish diaspora. Her poetry is characterized by luminous sensuality, dark symbolism with a “mystical motif” (Elie Wiesel), and an organic relationship with nature. In 1948, she emigrated to Montreal, where she contributed to the development of Yiddish literature for three decades.

Considered Galicia's first female poet, Korn began her literary career in Polish. After the persecution of Jews in newly independent Poland, she decided to devote herself entirely to Yiddish. By 1923, she had become a well-known Yiddish writer and poet. Her literary career flourished until the Second World War, when she was forced to live in exile in Uzbekistan and her husband was murdered by the Nazis. After the War, Korn spent a year in Stockholm, where she joined the International PEN Committee. In 1948, she emigrated to Montreal, where she was engaged in intense literary activity for 34 years, leaving an indelible mark on the city. She lived near Mount Royal, and trees are a powerful motif in her work, making her a precursor of nature writing in modern Yiddish literature.

The first French-Canadian woman to practice medicine in Quebec, Irma LeVasseur obtained her M.D. from Saint Paul University in Minnesota in 1900 and made an outstanding contribution to the medical profession.

Born in Quebec City, she studied at the Jésus-Marie de Sillery convent and wanted to become a doctor at a time when women were not admitted to either university studies or the medical profession. After studying in the United States, she managed to practise medicine in New York for three years. In 1903, the Quebec Legislative Assembly passed a private act allowing her to be admitted to the College of Physicians of the Province of Quebec. She became the first Quebec woman to practise medicine, a field that would open its doors to women in 1918, at McGill University's Faculty of Medicine.

In response to Montreal's high infant mortality rate and hospitals' refusal to admit children under five, LeVasseur launched an appeal. This led, in 1907, to the founding of the Hôpital Sainte-Justine de Montréal by Justine Lacoste-Beaubien, who ran the establishment for 45 years.

As a volunteer physician in Turkey during an outbreak of exanthematic typhus, LeVasseur worked tirelessly in the field to stem the contagion. She returned to Quebec, and in 1923 she and two colleagues founded Quebec City's first children's hospital, which later became the Hôpital de l'Enfant-Jésus de Québec and functioned as a general and university hospital. Also founder of the charity organization Œuvre des enfants malades de la province de Québec, she practised medicine for 50 years and died, almost forgotten, on January 18, 1964.

Justine Lacoste-Beaubien was born on October 1, 1877, into a middle-class Montreal family. Her mother, Marie-Louise Globensky, was a distant relative of Louis-Joseph Papineau, and her father, Alexandre Lacoste, a renowned jurist and Conservative Party loyalist who was appointed to the Senate in 1883 and then became Chief Justice of the Court of King's Bench of the Province of Quebec in 1891. They had 13 children, including Marie Gérin-Lajoie, the eldest, who founded the Fédération nationale Saint-Jean-Baptiste.

The family's sixth child, Justine Lacoste, was educated at the convent of the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary. In 1899, she married Louis de Gaspé Beaubien, son of a pioneer family from Outremont. A highly respected businessman, he founded his own brokerage firm, L. G. Beaubien et cie. In 1902, he became one of the most influential financiers of the French-Canadian elite. He was a major donor to Hôpital Sainte-Justine, helping the hospital out of financial difficulties on several occasions. An energetic, strong-willed and even rigid woman who belonged to an elite she could call on for help, Justine Lacoste-Beaubien was ideally suited to making Dr. Irma Levasseur's dream of founding a children's hospital a reality. Her work as chair of Sainte-Justine's board of directors, a position she held without interruption from 1907 to 1966, just a few months before her death, earned her many distinctions, including an honorary doctorate from the Université de Montréal in 1936 and the title of “Woman of the Year 1958” awarded by the Cercle des femmes journalistes.

Writer and translator Dominique Fortier is one of the leading voices in contemporary Quebec literature. Born in Quebec City, she has lived in Montreal for the past thirty years and has given pride of place to her borough, Outremont, in several of her books. After earning a Ph.D. in French literature at McGill University, she worked for 10 years in the publishing world as an editor and publisher, translating some of the greatest English-Canadian writers, including Heather O'Neill, Mordecai Richler and Anne Michaels. Since her first novel, Du bon usage des étoiles, published in 2008, she has built up an original, delicately structured body of work lying at the confluence of history, the imaginary and the intimate and now comprising a dozen books. Her novel Au péril de la mer won the Governor General's Award in 2015, and Les villes de papier, a foray into the world of Emily Dickinson, won the Prix Renaudot for essays in 2020 and has been translated into about fifteen languages. Responding to and illuminating one another, her most recent works — Les ombres blanches, La part de l'océan and Notre-Dame de tous les peut-être — blend novel, essay, poetry and self-narrative. In them, she explores the themes that haunt her: love, death, the ocean, the places that inhabit us and the irreplaceable place that books occupy at the heart of our lives. In doing so, she maps out a moving picture of desire and memory.

Alice Parizeau (born Alicja Poznańska, in Luniniec, Poland) was a journalist, novelist, essayist, and criminologist.

During World War II, she served as a liaison agent in the main resistance movement against the Nazi occupation, participated in the Warsaw Uprising, and was taken prisoner. After the Liberation, she was awarded the Croix de Guerre for her courage in the face of the enemy. She studied political science and law in Paris.

She immigrated to Quebec in 1955 and married Jacques Parizeau in 1956. She worked as a social rehabilitation officer for the City of Montreal, then as the Secretary General of the International Center for Comparative Criminology at the Université de Montréal starting in 1972. She authored publications on child protection that garnered significant attention.

In parallel, she pursued a career as a journalist and novelist. She contributed to magazines Châtelaine and Cité libre, as well as newspapers Le Devoir, La Presse, and La Patrie. Poland and Quebec are central to the dozen or so of her historical novels. She was the first recipient of the Prix Europe from the Association of French-Speaking Writers (1982) for Les lilas fleurissent à Varsovie (1981).

Diagnosed with an incurable cancer, she wrote Une femme, a journal documenting the final years of her life.

A member of the Order of Canada (1982) for her literary work, recipient of the Bene Merenti de Patria medal from the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Montréal (1990), and the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland (1994), Alice Parizeau made a significant contribution to the intellectual currents in Quebec. She was both from here and from elsewhere, Québécoise and Polish.

Lebanese-born Quebec novelist Abla Farhoud left her mark on Quebec literature in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, bringing immigrant women to life in her novels in a very vivid way.

She emigrated to Quebec with her family at the age of six. She returned to Lebanon in 1965 and then moved to Paris in 1969, studying drama at the Université de Vincennes. In 1973, she decided to settle permanently in Montreal, where she undertook a Master's degree in theatre at the Université du Québec à Montréal. Her first play, Quand j’étais grande (1982), was staged at the first Women's Experimental Theatre Festival in 1983. She went on to become a major figure in the migrant writing movement in Quebec with the publication of Les filles du 5-10-15¢ (1993), Jeux de patience (1994), Quand le vautour danse (1997) and Maudite machine (1999). In 1998, she published her first novel, Le bonheur a la queue glissante. A number of other novels followed, including Splendide solitude (2001), Le fou d’Omar (2005), and Le sourire de la petite juive (2011).

Her novel Havre Saint-Pierre was published posthumously in 2023. Her intimate work, centred on themes of belonging and memory with death at its core, has won numerous awards, including the Prix France-Québec and the Prix du roman francophone 2006 for Le fou d’Omar.

Born in Montreal into a modest Jewish family, Léa Roback was a feminist, communist activist, bookseller and pioneer of trade unionism in Quebec and Canada. An advocate for social justice, she was committed to the cause of women, particularly Aboriginal and immigrant women, and to that of workers.

The second of nine children, she grew up in the only Jewish family living in Beauport. In 1918, the family moved back to Montreal. As of the age of 18, Roback worked as a receptionist at British American Dye Works and then at His Majesty's Theatre, and she became aware of the disparities between the various groups in the Montreal population and of the obstacles to women’s progress. In 1926, she began a doctorate in French literature at Grenoble University; three years later, she took German courses in Berlin while teaching French.

With the rise of Nazism in Europe, she became strongly politicized. In 1932, facing a dangerous situation for both Jews and communists, she returned to Montreal. In 1935, she opened the city's first Marxist bookshop, the Modern Bookshop, and during the federal election, she worked for Communist Party candidate Fred Rose in the riding of Cartier. The following year, she met Madeleine Parent, with whom she would campaign for many years.

Among her many achievements, in 1937 she led a strike of some 5,000 women workers in Montreal. They won recognition for their union and improved working conditions and wages. It was one of the first strikes and one of the most significant union battles to improve working conditions for women in Canada.

Tahani Rached was born in Egypt and moved to Quebec in 1966, at the age of 18. She became a permanent filmmaker at the National Film Board of Canada in 1981, after making her first feature-length documentary, Les voleurs de job (1980), about the condition of immigrants in Quebec. Since then, she has made 11 documentaries, including Haïti (Québec) (1985), Au chic resto pop (1990), Médecins de cœur (1993), Quatre femmes d'Égypte (1997) and Ces filles-là (2006). She remained with the NFB for 23 years. She is now continuing her work in her homeland.

Involved with the New York-based Newsreel Collective, she became their guide to the working-class condition in Quebec. She then co-directed her first documentary, Pour faire changement, with Larry Mead. Throughout her award-winning career, she has always taken an interest in the plight of the disenfranchised and the “others.” The biographical note for the Albert Tessier Prize, which she received in 2023, sums up her contribution well: “Tahani Rached is a key figure in documentary filmmaking, both in Quebec and abroad. Her films are empathetic, engaging and inspiring, making a lasting impression. From one work to the next, the documentary filmmaker has won over audiences and earned the respect of her peers. Whether on film or video, her often avant-garde cinematography remains as relevant today as it ever was.”

(https://prixduquebec.gouv.qc.ca/recipiendaires/tahani-rached/)

Manon Barbeau has worked for over thirty years as a filmmaker, screenwriter and director of documentaries, including Les enfants du Refus global. In 2003, she created Vidéo Paradiso and then Wapikoni mobile, co-founded with the Atikamekw Nation Council and the First Nations Youth Council, with the support of the Assembly of First Nations of Quebec and Labrador and the NFB. Wapikoni Mobile, a mobile video and music creation studio, is aimed at First Nations youth, who have made nearly 1,500 films there, winning awards at prestigious festivals around the world. In 2006, Ms. Barbeau created Musique nomade, which offers recording workshops and outreach to Aboriginal musicians. In 2014, with some fifteen international partners, she created RICAA, the first international network for Indigenous audiovisual creation. In 2017, Wapikoni became an official partner of UNESCO.

Manon Barbeau is also the author of the novel Merlyne (1991).

Her work has won numerous awards, both in Canada (Order of Canada, Ordre national du Québec, Ordre de Montréal, Prix Albert-Tessier, etc.) and abroad, with the French Republic awarding her the title of Chevalière des Arts et des Lettres. She is an important mediator between Quebec and Aboriginal cultures.

Ariane Moffatt is a renowned Quebec pop singer-songwriter, one of the most recognized of her generation in the French-speaking world. She composes, produces and arranges all of her albums.

Born in Saint-Romuald, she studied music at Cégep de Saint-Laurent before beginning a Bachelor’s degree in classical singing and popular music at UQAM. She interrupted her studies to join Marc Déry and later Daniel Bélanger, accompanying him on the keyboard during his Rêver mieux tour, opening for his performances and thereby building her own audience. In 2002, she released Aquanaute, her debut album. It was a major success, establishing her as a leading artist of the new generation of musicians. The album sold 120,000 copies and earned her the Félix awards for Pop-Rock Album, Producer of the Year, and Revelation of the Year.

An evocative songwriter and versatile musician, she has released a dozen albums. Her album Le cœur dans la tête (2005) earned her the title of Performer of the Year, while her next album, Tous les sens (2008), gained significant exposure in France. With Je veux tout (named Song of the Year at the ADISQ gala), she was nominated for the Victoires de la musique (in the Revelation of the Year category) and won the Grand Prix awarded by the Charles Cros Academy.

As a unique voice for her generation and a leading representative of the LGBTQ2S+ community, Ariane Moffatt is one of the most prominent, engaged, creative and beloved figures on the Quebec cultural scene.

A specialist in the history of the Haitian community in Montreal and the Executive Director of the Maison d’Haïti, Marjorie Villefranche is deeply committed to the fight against racism and discrimination.

She arrived in Montreal with her family in 1964 after leaving Haiti, which was under the Duvalier dictatorship at the time. Throughout her career, she has advocated for social justice causes, promoting education and literacy. In 1975, Villefranche became involved with the Maison d'Haïti, an organization dedicated to fighting racism and discrimination, particularly toward immigrants, women and, of course, Black communities. In 1995, she participated in organizing the famous “Marche du pain et des roses” (March of bread and roses), a feminist initiative to promote women’s rights launched by the Fédération des femmes du Québec under the leadership of Françoise David. In 2014, she collaborated on the Histoire d’immigrations project led by UQAM and Bibliothèques et Archives nationales du Québec. She also produced three documentaries, including District 67 (2002) and Port-au-Prince, ma ville (2006).

Since 2011, Villefranche has been the Executive Director of the Maison d’Haïti, located in the Saint-Michel neighbourhood. Her tireless work for social inclusion and the common good has earned her numerous accolades, including the Medal of Honour from the National Assembly of Quebec in 2024 and the title of Honorary Citizen of the City of Montreal in 2021.

Mary Two-Axe Earley was a pioneer who fought for the rights of Indigenous women and children in Canada.

Born in Kahnawake to a Mohawk father and an Oneida mother, Mary Two-Axe moved with her mother to the United States after her parents' separation. When her mother passed away in 1919, she returned to Quebec to live with her maternal grandparents. As an adult, she settled in Brooklyn, New York, where she married an Irishman, Edward Earley, with whom she had two children. In 1966, she discovered the extent of the consequences for Indigenous women who married non-Indians; she then became involved in the fight to end the discrimination enshrined in the Indian Act.

At the suggestion of Thérèse Casgrain, she brought together 30 Mohawk women and submitted a brief to the Royal Commission on the Status of Women in Canada denouncing this injustice. In 1968, she founded the Quebec organization Equal Rights for Native Women, the Canadian counterpart of which, Indian Rights for Indian Women, was established in 1973. After the death of her husband in 1969, she returned to live on the reserve, in the house her grandparents had left her, and faced several forms of resistance.

In 1975, at a world conference on women organized by the United Nations in Mexico City, she denounced the situation of First Nations women in Canada and advocated for their cause. It would take another ten years of activism and struggle before the law was amended. Mary Two-Axe Earley left a courageous legacy as the initiator of constitutional change for women marginalized by the Indian Act and for the protection of human rights.

Sheila Fischman, a native of Saskatchewan, grew up in small-town Ontario and then moved to Toronto for secondary school studies and university education at the University of Toronto. She spent a few years working for the University of Toronto Press and then moved to Quebec, initially to North Hatley in the Eastern Townships and later to Montreal, where she has now lived for some thirty-five years.

Her first forays into translation were inspired by a desire to improve her French. To her surprise, her initial venture became a bestseller, and she has since produced some 250 translations, providing a rich record of Quebec literature over the years. At the same time, in concert with her colleagues in the field, she has worked to improve rights and benefits for translators. Her achievements have earned her appointments to the Order of Canada and the Ordre national du Québec; translation awards from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Translation Centre of Columbia University, and the Quebec Writers Federation; and the prestigious Canada Council Molson Prize, a career award open to practitioners in all fields of artistic endeavour.

Rima Elkouri is an award-winning journalist and author. Winner of the Prix Jules-Fournier from the Conseil supérieur de la langue française du Québec and the Prix Judith-Jasmin from the Fédération professionnelle des journalistes du Québec, she has been a columnist for La Presse since 2001. She is particularly interested in issues relating to immigration, social justice and the rights of women and minorities.

Born in Montreal, she is the granddaughter of Armenian genocide survivors. Her novel Manam (Boréal), which has won over critics and thousands of readers, is an insider's look at the genocide and the importance of bearing witness. Both a tribute to the courage of women and a quest for hope in a despairing world, the novel has been translated into Spanish, English and Arabic. Manam was a finalist for the prestigious Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize for best novel of the year.

Rima Elkouri holds a Master's degree in comparative literature from the Université de Montréal and is the author of Pas envie d’être arabe (Somme toute), a collection of her best texts published between 2000 and 2014.

Marjorie “Jori” Smith was a Montreal painter and watercolourist. After studying at the Art Association of Montreal and the École des beaux-arts de Montréal, she became an important figure in the visual arts in the 1930s. She was one of the founding members of the Groupe de l'Est, a group of painters who, valuing art for art's sake, opposed the pictorial nationalism of the Ontario Group of Seven. Over the course of her career, she became close to other painters, such as Jean-Paul Lemieux, Marian Scott, John Lyman, Goodridge Roberts and Alfred Pellan, as well as to artists in other disciplines, such as Gabrielle Roy.

As a painter, Smith is best known for her portraits, still lifes and landscapes, produced all over the world, but especially in Charlevoix, a region with which she maintained close ties under the impetus of the painter and ethnologist Jean Palardy, her husband at the time. She also explored the region with ethnographer Marius Barbeau. Her naturalist style, sensitive but unsentimental, shows a rural Quebec that is not watered down or idealized, with its inhabitants as they are.

After her divorce from Palardy in 1957, Smith stopped painting and did not resume her artistic practice until 1976. Under the influence of Alfred Pellan, her palette opened up to brighter colours. Winner of several awards, she would paint well into her nineties.

Canadian painter, muralist, draughtswoman and graphic artist Marian Scott, née Dale, was one of the first students at the École des beaux-arts de Montréal and a major figure in contemporary art.

Talented, she presented her first works at the Printemps de l'art de Montréal exhibition (1918) at the age of 12. After studying at the École des beaux-arts de Montréal and the Slade School of Arts in London, she became an important figure in modern art in Montreal in the 1930s. Not afraid to experiment with different styles, first with a form of geometric realism influenced by Modigliani, then with social realism highlighting the lives of Montreal workers during the Great Depression and, finally, with surrealism and pure abstraction, Scott was active in the Contemporary Art Society, where John Lyman encouraged her to adopt abstraction. In some respects in the shadow of her husband, lawyer and academic Frank R. Scott, she exhibited her work in the United States before moving to Canada. Her recognition came somewhat late.

Scott was politically committed to the left, alongside her husband Frank, one of the founders of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, which later became the New Democratic Party. Because of her pacifist convictions, she mobilized opposition to nuclear weapons and the Vietnam war.

Among other honours, she became a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1973. She painted until the end of her life.

Quebec actress, author and screenwriter of Russian descent, Kim Yaroshevskaya created the iconic character Fanfreluche, whom she portrayed on Radio-Canada television. She also played the grandmother on the show Passe-Partout (1977-87), leaving a lasting impact on two generations of young Quebecers.

Born in the Soviet Union to a Jewish communist family, she was named after the Young Communist International ("Ким"). During the 1930s, amidst the massive political repressions led by Stalin in the Soviet Union, her father was sent to prison, and her mother later passed away. Yaroshevskaya went to live with her grandmother and, in 1934, emigrated to Montreal to live with an aunt. She attended an English-speaking school and started to learn French in 1940, when she enrolled at the École des beaux-arts de Montréal.

She joined the Théâtre Le Grenier troupe, and in 1954 she created the character of the doll Fanfreluche, whom she portrayed for about fifteen years on the Radio-Canada TV programs Fafouin, La boîte à surprise and Fanfreluche (1968-71). On stage, she performed around fifty roles in plays by Tennessee Williams, Ionesco, Chekhov, García Lorca, Pirandello, Camus, Robert Gurik and Réjean Ducharme.

As an author, Yaroshevskaya published La petite Kim (1998), followed by Mon voyage en Amérique (2017). An unforgettable figure in children's theatre and television, she became a member of the Order of Canada (1991) and a companion of the Order of Arts and Letters of Quebec (2017).

A poet with a unique voice, Marie Uguay left her mark on the Quebec literary scene of the 1970s. Brilliant and sensitive, she enjoyed a meteoric but brief rise to fame.

Born in Côte-Saint-Paul, Uguay followed in the footsteps of her paternal grandfather, a worker who reinvented himself as a musician through sheer determination. Around the age of 15, she began writing poetry. Her first collection, Signe et rumeur, was published by Éditions du Noroît in 1976. It included illustrations by the artist and two photographs of her lover, Stéphan Kovacs. This was followed by the collections L’outre-vie (1979) and Marie Uguay : autoportraits (published posthumously in 1982). Her Journal, edited, annotated and introduced by Stéphan Kovacs, was also published posthumously in 2005.

Marie Uguay created intimate poetry, where ecstasy and eroticism found their place, while also celebrating nature. She contributed to a number of publications, including the journals Estuaire, Possibles, and Vie des arts. Alongside figures such as Michèle Lalonde and Anne Hébert, she participated in the Nuit de la poésie (Poetry Night) in 1980, which Jean-Claude Labrecque and Jean-Pierre Masse later turned into the film La nuit de la poésie, 28 mars 1980. A film entitled Marie Uguay (NFB, 1982), directed by Jean-Claude Labrecque, followed.

In 1977, Uguay learned she had bone cancer. One of her legs had to be amputated — a painful experience that profoundly transformed her poetic vision. In 1981, a difficult year, she wrote her Autoportraits before passing away in October.

She was posthumously awarded the Médaille de la Fondation Émile-Nelligan for her entire body of work, and the Maison de la culture in the Ville-Émard neighbourhood of Montreal has borne her name since 1982.

Phyllis Lambert, FRAIC, architect, author and urban activist, is Director Emeritus of the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA), an international research museum which she established with the conviction that the built environment is a public concern. Lambert, a leader in urban conservation and enhancement and social issues, founded Héritage Montréal in 1975. Four years later she was instrumental in establishing Milton-Parc, the largest non-profit, cooperative housing renovation project in Canada.

As a member of the McGill College Committee working with the Montreal Chamber of Commerce in 1984, Lambert initiated the process of public consultation, an essential tool for citizen participation in the development of the city. In 1984, she became a member of the Public Consultation Committee of the Vieux-Port de Montréal, the body responsible for the transformation of the historic area from industrial to societal use. From 1984 to 2007, she was a member of the Board of Directors of the Canada Lands Company for the Vieux-Port. In 1996, Lambert formed the Fonds d’Investissement de Montréal (FIM), the only private investment fund in Canada engaged in the renovation of social housing.

Lambert also worked nationally and internationally in ensuring high-quality design and construction of the Seagram Building in New York City (1954-58) and the Toronto Dominion Centre (1963), and she also worked on conservation in Cairo in the 1980s. She is currently working on issues of architectural stewardship in Vancouver as Chair of the Arthur Erickson Foundation. In 2014, Lambert was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the XIV Venice Architectural Biennale.

Sherry Simon is Distinguished Professor Emerita, Concordia University. She studied at McGill University, Brandeis University, the École des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris, and the Université de Montréal. Her work has chronicled the transformation of Montreal from the 1960s to the present, as it became an increasingly diverse French-speaking city. She has written several books on Montreal, starting with a portrait of the neighbourhood Mile End in 1998 (Hybridité culturelle), continuing with Translating Montreal, a study of literary exchanges across a divided city, and then exploring other linguistically divided cities, including Barcelona, Trieste, Prague and colonial Calcutta (Cities in Translation: Intersections of Language and Memory). Her most recent work focuses on translation sites — urban spaces that speak of conflictual histories and the conversation across languages. Examples in Montreal are Saint Michael the Archangel Church in Mile End and Mount Royal, the subject of her recent essay Promenades polyglottes, which is a tribute to the cultural history of Montreal’s cherished mountain park. Her work has been translated into several languages, and she is a recipient of a Killam fellowship, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and a member of the Académie des lettres du Québec.

Helen Galloway McNicoll was a renowned Montreal Impressionist painter.

Born into a wealthy Scottish family — her father was vice-president of the Canadian Pacific Railway — McNicoll was soon able to devote herself to her artistic interests without financial worries, despite the fact that an episode of scarlet fever left her deaf at the age of two. Her formal artistic training took place at the Art Association of Montreal, where she was awarded a scholarship in 1899 and where her teacher was William Brymner, who introduced her to the latest French artistic trends, including Impressionism. In 1902, McNicoll went to London to study at the Slade School of Art, where equality between men and women was particularly valued. In 1905, she enrolled at the Cornish School of Landscape and Sea Painting in St. Ives, in the English countryside, where she rubbed shoulders with Emily Carr. She also met the painter Dorothea Sharp, with whom she remained close throughout her life and with whom she painted and travelled the world. She opened a studio south of Paris around 1910. Although living abroad, she returned annually to Montreal. From 1906 onward, she exhibited in various Canadian venues to critical acclaim. In 1914, she was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. She died in 1915 of complications from diabetes.

Helen McNicoll's brief but dazzling career made a powerful contribution to the spread of Impressionism in Canada. Her work is sensitive and luminous.

Canadian natural scientist and botanist Carrie Derick was the first woman to be promoted to the rank of full professor at McGill University, and she was also a pioneer of feminism in Quebec. Born in Clarenceville, she was one of the first women to graduate from McGill, getting excellent grades and earning a Master’s degree in 1896.

Derick continued her research at several renowned institutions, including Harvard University, the Royal College of Science in London and the University of Bonn in Germany. In 1912, on the strength of her brilliant research record, she became Professor of Botany at McGill, where she introduced the teaching of comparative morphology and genetics. Socially committed, she championed many causes, including compulsory school attendance, women's rights and birth control.

Derick played a pioneering role in the history of feminism in Quebec. From 1907 to 1911, she was president of the Montreal Local Council of Women (1893), the first feminist organization in Quebec dedicated to improving women's civil and political rights. She played a very active role in the suffragist struggle that took off in Montreal, forging links with European suffragettes such as Emmeline Pankhurst.

In 1913, the Montreal Suffrage Association (MSA) was founded, and Derick became its president. In 1918, the federal government granted women the right to vote. The MSA was dissolved, and its activists worked with their French-Canadian counterparts to continue the suffrage struggle at the provincial level by founding the Provincial Committee for Women's Suffrage. On April 25, 1940, women were granted the right to vote in Quebec.

A Montreal actress renowned for her audacity, Anne-Marie Cadieux is enjoying a brilliant career in theatre, film and television. On stage, she has worked with some of our greatest directors, including Robert Lepage, Brigitte Haentjens, Denis Marleau, Angela Konrad, Serge Denoncourt and Lorraine Pintal. She has played many powerful roles, including the title roles in Strindberg's Mademoiselle Julie, Sophocles' Electra and James Joyce's Molly Bloom, and Merteuil in Heiner Müller's Quartett. At the Théâtre national de Montréal, her performances as Queen Elizabeth I in Dacia Maraini's Mary Stuart, Marguerite Gautier in Alexandre Dumas' La Dame aux camélias, Annette Reille in Yasmina Reza's Le Dieu du carnage, Sophie in Réjean Ducharme's HA ha!..., and Sarah Bernhardt in Michel Marc Bouchard's La divine illusion earned her a Gascon-Roux award for best female performer of the year. Her performance in Fassbinder's Les larmes amères de Petra von Kant earned her the 2019 Prix de l'Association des critiques de théâtre.

In addition to her career in the theatre, she has played a succession of roles on the small and big screens, garnering awards and nominations over the years. Film credits include Le confessionnal, Nô, Le bonheur, c'est une chanson triste, Toi and Solo. She has also appeared in many successful series, including Annie et ses hommes, Yamaska, Miss Météo, Cover Girl, Hubert et Fanny and La maison bleue.

The many honours she has received over the course of her career attest to her talent and commitment to the Quebec artistic scene.

Geneviève Cadieux is an internationally recognized photographer and multidisciplinary artist from Quebec.

She studied visual arts at the University of Ottawa before settling in Montreal. The artist sees the body as a sensitive surface, capable of recording the marks of time and suffering, and the photographic image as a luminous wound on the emulsion. Cadieux is interested in the integration of art in urban environments, the effect it has on city dwellers, and how it marks and identifies a place. Her work La voie lactée has been watching over the city since its inauguration in 1992 at the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal. Now a symbol of the city, this illuminated installation, which depicts the lips of her mother silhouetted against the sky, both provokes and charms.

In 1990, Geneviève Cadieux became the first woman to represent Canada solo at the Venice Biennale. In 1993, the Musée d”art contemporain dedicated a retrospective to her, and in the year 2000 the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal held a solo exhibition of her work in 2000. The National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa invited her in 2022 to create a work taking up the entire southern facade of the building. In 2011, she won the Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts. She became a member of the Royal Society of Canada in 2014, won the Paul-Émile Borduas Prize in 2018, and was appointed a member of the Order of Canada in 2022.

Her works are featured in a number of museum collections in Canada, Europe and Asia.

Ranee Lee has spent over fifty years in Montreal, Quebec, where she has built a remarkable career as one of Canada’s leading jazz vocalists, an award-winning actress, a songwriter, and the author of the children’s book Nana, What Do You Say?. With 12 acclaimed albums on the Justin Time label, her discography showcases collaborations with some of jazz’s finest musicians. Notable works include The Musicals: Jazz on Broadway, which blends jazz standards and Broadway tunes, and her Juno-winning album Ranee Lee Lives Upstairs (2010). Her latest release, Because You Loved Me, is a poignant collection of well-known tunes originally recorded by Céline Dion.

Lee has graced stages across North America, Europe and the Caribbean, performing at prestigious jazz festivals alongside legends such as Clark Terry, Oliver Jones and Herb Ellis. She has twice been named Top Canadian Female Jazz Vocalist by Jazz Report Magazine and has received multiple Juno nominations.

A dedicated educator, Lee is an Assistant Professor at McGill University’s Schulich School of Music and a former faculty member at Université Laval. She is a Member of the Order of Canada and was received into Quebec’s Ordre des arts et des lettres in 2023, in recognition of her enduring contributions to music and culture.

Actress, author, composer and performer, Rose Ouellette (La Poune) was a major figure in 20th-century Quebec theatre and comedy. She was also the first woman to run two playhouses in North America.

Born in 1903 in Faubourg à m'lasse, a poor district of Montreal, she dropped out of school as a teenager to work in a shoe factory to support her family. She was one of four girls to reach adulthood in a family of 21 children.

At the age of 12, Ouellette discovered the stage. She won amateur singing and acting competitions, and at 19 she was noticed by Paul Hébert after performing at the King-Edward Palace. During the First World War, she made her theatrical debut and met Olivier Guimond Sr., with whom she formed a duo that became popular in Quebec in the 1920s. He suggested she adopt the nickname “La Poune,” for which she became famous.

With her sense of humour and her sketches mixing puns and misunderstandings, she transgressed the taboos of her time and became the queen of burlesque. She directed the Théâtre Cartier (1928-36) and then the Comédie-Canadienne (1936-53) before pursuing her career in cabaret. Highly appreciated by the public, she continued her career on stage and television until the 1990s, when she reached the age of 90. In 1990, she was made a knight of the Ordre national du Québec.

Popular singer Alys Robi was Quebec's first international star.

Born in Quebec City into a family of modest means, Robi began her career at the age of seven in a musical at the Théâtre Capitole. She was nicknamed “Little Alice.” As a teenager, she worked with La Poune (Rose Ouellette) at Montreal's Comédie-Canadienne. She met Olivier Guimond Jr., who became her lover, and then Gratien Gélinas, with whom she sang across the country to raise the morale of Canadian soldiers.

Now nicknamed “the war singer,” Robi performed French and American repertoire in Montreal cabarets. She introduced Canadians to Latin American songs and hosted her own radio show in Toronto. She made several recordings with RCA Victor (Montreal, New York) and the Southern Publishing Company (Los Angeles), enjoying great international success.

She performed in the chic cabarets of New York, London and Paris. In 1946, she represented Canada at the prestigious opening night of the BBC studios in London. Her hectic career took her to Hollywood, where, in 1948, she was involved in a major car accident. Returning to Quebec for medical treatment, she found herself forcibly committed to Hôpital Saint-Michel-Archange. She remained there for five years. This tragic situation put an end to her international career. After returning to the stage in 1955, she struggled with changing fashions and prejudice.

In the 1970s and 1980s, she was rediscovered by Montreal's gay community. Flamboyant and independent, she sang until the end of her life. A number of tributes have been paid to her, including the film Ma vie en cinémascope (2003).

Born in Oka-Kanesatake in 1937, Myra Cree, a Mohawk mother of four, activist, lover of the French language, and unique voice, made a lasting impact on both Indigenous and Quebec culture through her commitment, creative genius, boldness and unapologetic freedom.

After starting at CKRS-Jonquière radio in 1960 and working at Sherbrooke television, Myra Cree joined Radio-Canada in 1973 and became, two years later, the first woman to hold the position of anchor of the Téléjournal. She would go on to host the religious news magazine Second regard for many years before dedicating herself exclusively and passionately to radio, creating iconic shows, including Cree et chuchotements and L’embarquement pour si tard.

Heavily involved during the 1990 Oka crisis, Myra Cree co-founded the Movement for Peace and Justice in Oka and Kanesatake and contributed to the writing of Les langues autochtones du Québec, published by the Conseil de la langue française du Québec. A board member of Terres en vues, she wrote numerous pieces for its journal and hosted the Indigenous Film and Video Festival, in addition to co-chairing the 25^th anniversary campaign of the journal Recherches amérindiennes.

A recipient of the Artist for Peace Award, the Judith-Jasmin Award from the Quebec Federation of Professional Journalists, the Paul Gilson Grand Prix for French-speaking public radio stations and the National Aboriginal Achievement Award, and a knight of the National Order of Quebec, Myra Cree passed away on October 13, 2005, leaving an irreplaceable impression on the imagination of her audiences.

A great and magnificent woman of the theatre and an actress who has infused vibrant sensitivity and the hidden pain of humanity into the greatest roles of classical and contemporary repertoires, Sylvie Drapeau has, for nearly forty years, established a unique way of portraying the human being on stage. She explores the depths of the souls and intricate journeys of complex female characters, all in search of horizons as vast as dreams. In doing so, she touches audiences’ hearts directly. She has illuminated and transcended the words of Shakespeare, Racine, Beckett, Goldoni, Tennessee Williams, Jennifer Tremblay, Michel Tremblay, Michel Marc Bouchard and so many others, imbuing them with dignity, fragility, and sometimes a burning intensity, for it is often women characters consumed by fire and endowed with a fierce clarity to whom she gives life on stage.

However, we should not overlook Sylvie Drapeau's comedic talents, as she can be irresistibly funny. While we may remember with emotion her portrayal of Henriette De Lorimier in Pierre Falardeau's film 15 février 1839, it is in the theatre where she truly thrives. With the carefree nature and dedication of a dreamy child, she builds fragile, ephemeral sandcastles that leave indelible marks. It is fair to ask where the directors shaping the Quebec theatre of today would be without Sylvie Drapeau's immense contributions. Finally, it is important to recognize her invaluable work as an author who, through literature, has found another way to reach the truth of the human experience.

Marie-Marcelle Godbout was a pioneer in efforts to defend the rights and dignity of transgender people in Quebec.

Originally from Abitibi, Godbout moved to Montreal at the age of 18. She first worked on stage as a transvestite magician under the name Mimi de Paris. In 1980, she founded the Association des transsexuels du Québec (ATQ), which offered a 24-hour hotline now known as Aide aux trans du Québec. Today, this innovative community organization continues to provide vital support to many people of all genders.

For three decades, Godbout campaigned tirelessly for the rights and dignity of transgender people, breaking many taboos in a society where these issues were still largely unknown or ignored. She provided resources and a platform to raise public awareness of transgender realities, and she became one of the first transgender persons of her generation to give open interviews. Through her courage, generosity and determination, she helped to demystify the realities experienced by transgender people and to raise public awareness of their cause. A woman of conviction, she often stated: “The victory of a minority is a victory for humanity.”

Marie-Marcelle Godbout’s legacy is priceless. The commitment and humanity that she embodied still inspire people today and will continue to do so in the future.

Born in Montreal in 1902, Sylvia Daoust was Quebec's first sculptor. From 1915, she studied drawing and modeling at the École des arts et manufactures. She joined the first cohort of the École des beaux-arts de Montréal, a school also attended by Paul-Émile Borduas and Jean-Paul Lemieux, where she studied until 1928.

In 1929, she tied for first prize in sculpture at the Governor General Lord Willingdon's Interprovincial Competition. Thanks to a scholarship from the Quebec provincial government, she studied in France. There she met the artist Henri Charlier, who was to exert a major influence on her work. In Quebec, the Benedictine Dom Bellot, Charlier's friend and architect of Saint-Benoît-du-Lac Abbey, was another mentor.

On her return to Quebec, she taught modeling, drawing, anatomy and wood sculpture from 1930 to 1943 at the École des beaux-arts de Montréal. She thus became one of the first two women — the other one was Irène Sénécal (1901-78) — to teach in Quebec's fine arts schools.

Her sculptures include the monumental statue of Brother Marie-Victorin at the Montreal Botanical Garden, that of Édouard Montpetit at the Université de Montréal, the life-size bronze of Nicolas Viel that adorns the façade of the National Assembly, and the deeply inspired Madonnas at Saint-Benoît-du-Lac Abbey.

La Bolduc, or Madame Bolduc, was the first female singer-songwriter of Quebec and Canada. Her work is considered a permanent symbol of Quebec’s musical heritage.

Born in 1894 in Newport, Quebec, Mary Rose-Anne Bolduc, née Travers, was a singer-songwriter, harmonica player and fiddler. Coming from a large family of Irish and French-Canadian descent, she moved to Montreal at the age of 13 to make a living. She initially worked as a maid and later married a plumber with whom she started a family that lived in poverty and suffered several infant deaths.

Out of economic necessity, she began performing in public in 1927, thanks to Conrad Gauthier, and soon enjoyed great success. Her songs, filled with humour and honesty, addressed the challenges of life during the 1920s and 1930s, both before and after the Great Depression. They showcased her Gaspé accent and her distinctive style, often including vocalizations.

A joyful and dynamic woman, La Bolduc recorded in Canada and the United States, becoming the first French-speaking folk singer to connect with ordinary people. Her recordings of La cuisinière (1929) and La servante (1930), released on Starr 78 RPM Records, sold 12,000 copies, a phenomenal success for the time. In total, she recorded 85 songs on 43 Starr 78 RPM Records. She toured extensively from Quebec to New Brunswick and New England.

La Bolduc passed away at the age of 41 from cancer. She left a lasting mark on the evolution of song in Quebec, and she earned recognition in the form of several awards and honours, including a musical award, a painting by Jean-Paul Riopelle and two films.

Marcelle Gauvreau was a Quebec botanist and science popularizer. After studying botany at the Université de Montréal and library science at McGill University, she began working with Brother Marie-Victorin Kirouac as head of the library at the Botanical Institute of the Jardin botanique de Montréal. There, she carried out extensive research on various plant species, including marine algae. She published three books, of which she was the sole author, as well as numerous scholarly articles. She played a decisive role in the development of Kirouac’s magnum opus, Flore laurentienne.

Gauvreau also distinguished herself as a science popularizer and educator, particularly with children, whom she wanted to introduce to science. In 1935, she founded the École de l'éveil, where she promoted a living pedagogy based on the observation of flora and fauna in nature. She was involved in the Cercles de jeunes naturalistes movement and wrote columns for Le Devoir.

Although she was in poor health, Gauvreau made her mark in a higher education and research environment that left little room for women. Her scientific contribution, long neglected because of her gender, has been the subject of renewed interest in recent years, notably in films and publications. A nature reserve in the Saguenay region bears her name.

Born in Port-au-Prince, Yvette Bonny has made great strides in the treatment of sickle-cell anemia, which mainly affects Black people. After studying medicine in her native city, as well as in Paris and Montreal, she moved to Quebec in 1962 to work at Hôpital Sainte-Justine.

In 1970, she joined Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital as a pediatric hematologist. In 1980, she performed the first bone marrow transplant in Quebec. At the time, this cutting-edge procedure was not widely used, but 30 years later it would be used to treat certain cancers as well as hematological diseases such as leukemia and sickle-cell anemia.

In 1978, she began teaching at the Université de Montréal's Faculty of Medicine. For over thirty-five years, she cared for very sick children, often with leukemia, at Montreal's Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital. Between 1980 and 1998, she was in charge of the Provincial Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplant Unit, performing all bone marrow transplants for Quebec children.

A pediatric hematologist emerita, Dr. Bonny joined Leucan because of her work with children suffering from advanced or terminal leukemia. Always socially committed, she is engaged in combating poverty and school dropout among young Haitian immigrants. She is an honorary member of the Board of Directors of Entraide bénévole Kouzin Kouzin', an organization that promotes the harmonious integration of young people from cultural communities and their families into Quebec society.

Canada's first female nuclear physicist, Harriet Brooks grew up in Ontario. In 1894, she moved with her family to Montreal, where she enrolled at McGill University. She earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics and philosophy (1898) and conducted research in the field of electromagnetism, studying the behaviour of electrons with Ernest Rutherford. In 1901, she became the first woman to earn a Master's degree from McGill. She was also the first woman in Canada to receive a graduate degree in electromagnetism.

Brooks continued her doctoral work in physics at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania; during the same period, she worked at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, England. In 1903, she returned to McGill, where she made decisive discoveries in the field of radiation, including the fact that, if non-radioactive material was placed in a radioactive chamber, it would be transformed into radioactive material. This discovery became a significant contribution to Ernest Rutherford's theory of radioactivity and radioactive decay, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1908. She held a number of academic posts, working in Paris with Marie Curie at the institute of the same name. She later joined Barnard College at Columbia University in New York.

Harriet Brooks' important contributions to physics, such as the fundamental principles of atomic decay, induced radioactivity and radiation, as well as her understanding of the fundamental properties of the element radon, paved the way for the modern science of nuclear physics and chemistry in its entirety as well as modern applications in nuclear medicine, including many cancer treatments.

Elisapie’s unconditional attachment to her territory and her language, Inuktitut, remains at the core of her creative journey. Born and raised in Salluit, a small village in Nunavik that is only accessible by plane, Elisapie is an emblematic Canadian Inuk singer-songwriter. Since she won her first Juno Award in 2005 with her band Taima, Elisapie’s body of work has been praised many times.

On September 15, 2023, Elisapie unveiled Inuktitut, her fourth solo record. On this album, the Inuk artist covers 10 classic rock and pop songs from the 1960s to the 1990s, singing them in Inuktitut, her mother tongue. The result is an emotional, autobiographical soundtrack where each song is associated with a loved one or an intimate story. Acclaimed by audiences and critics alike, Inuktitut is the artist’s second album to land a shortlist nomination for the Polaris Music Prize. Its success also earned Elisapie a Juno Award in the Contemporary Indigenous Artist of the Year category as well as five awards at the 2024 ADISQ Gala, and gave her the opportunity to play over 70 concerts in Canada, the U.S. and Europe.

Aside from her musical career, Elisapie is known for creating and producing documentaries and the first Canada-wide broadcast TV show, called Le Grand Solstice, to celebrate National Indigenous Peoples’ Day. In addition, a Canada Post stamp is dedicated to her.

Always surrounded by the best musicians from the Montreal indie and folk scenes, Elisapie makes her culture resonate with finesse by mixing modernity and tradition.

Catherine Mavrikakis is a novelist and professor of literature in research-creation at the Department of French Literature of the Université de Montréal. She has produced a unique body of work that often explores the various faces of Montreal and the North American continent.

An essential figure in Quebec literature and culture, Mavrikakis has written a number of acclaimed novels and essays, including Deuils cannibales et mélancoliques, Le ciel de Bay City, La ballade d’Ali Baba, Oscar De Profundis, L’annexe, L’absente de tous bouquets, Sur les hauteurs du mont Thoreau, Omaha Beach (oratorio), Diamanda Galás, guerrière et gorgone, and L’éternité en accéléré. Her works, haunted by death, invite the reader to reassess the North American landscape. Her books have been translated into several languages (English, Swedish, Italian, Greek, Ukrainian and Serbo-Croatian) and have been performed in the theatre by actresses Sylvie Drapeau (FIL at Usine C) and Sophie Faucher (Théâtre de Quat'Sous).

She was co-holder of the McConnell-Université de Montréal Chair on Gift Narratives and Life in a Care Context. In her research, she focuses on writings about grief, madness, illness, AIDS and the death penalty. She has received numerous prestigious awards, including the Grand Prix of the City of Montreal, the Prix des libraires du Québec, the Prix littéraire des collégiens and the Jacques-Cartier Prize. She has been shortlisted twice for the Prix Femina in France.

Writer, journalist and founder of the Bibliothèque municipale de Montréal, of which she became assistant director, Éva Circé-Côté was a free thinker committed to the emancipation of women, opposed to the policies of the clergy and in favour of secular education for all.

Born in Montreal, Circé-Côté enjoyed a rich and varied career in journalism. She published poems and columns under various pseudonyms (Colombine and Musette; Jean Ney and Julien Saint-Michel) in the newspapers Les Débats, L’avenir, Le monde illustré and L’avenir du Nord. In 1902, with Charles Gill and Arthur Bessette, she founded the literary journal L’étincelle, writing nearly half its articles. In all, she published nearly 1,800 articles in various newspapers. She also wrote plays and a biography of Louis-Joseph Papineau (1924). Her non-conformist nature set her apart from her contemporaries at a time when women's voices were little heard in the public sphere, and her use of pseudonyms enabled her to express and disseminate her own ideas.

A woman of many talents, she called for girls' education and women's suffrage, denounced racism and defended the rights of workers and their children. She demanded the right to go to the movies on Sundays, at a time when the clergy wanted to censor the seventh art. In 1933, Circé-Côté was one of the first Quebec figures to denounce Hitler's policies in Germany. Recognized as Montreal's first librarian, she was also curator of the prestigious Philéas Gagnon collection.

Louise Lecavalier, a Canadian dancer and choreographer, is an unmatched force of nature. She has established herself on the international stage as the "most brilliant and tragic dancer of our time" (Melody Maker, London).

Born in Laval, she studied at Collège Bois-de-Boulogne in Montreal and continued her dance training both there and in New York. A member of the Nouvelle aire and Pointépiénu dance companies, she joined La La La Human Steps and Édouard Lock in 1981. An icon of the company for nearly two decades, she devoted herself entirely to her art. Until May 1999, she was involved in all of La La La Human Steps' major creations and collaborations, including those with the Bolshoi, David Bowie and Frank Zappa. She also participated in Kathryn Bigelow's 1995 film Strange Days.

In 2006, she founded her own company, Fou glorieux, working with Tedd Robinson, Crystal Pite and Nigel Charnock and later collaborating with Benoît Lachambre. Together, they created the stunning Is You Me (Festival TransAmériques, 2008) and “I” is memory (2006). Since 2012, her work has enjoyed instant success. The pieces So Blue (2012-22), Mille batailles (2016-2020), and Stations (2020-24) have had long touring lives and present unique choreographic worlds.

With her recent creation Danses vagabondes, which had its world premiere in Germany in December 2024, Lecavalier will perform at the Festival TransAmériques in Montreal in 2025.

A recipient of an honorary doctorate from UQAM (2017), Lecavalier was awarded the title of Honorary Citizen of the City of Montreal by Mayor Valérie Plante in 2021. In 2023, she was made an officer of the Order of Arts and Letters of the French Republic.

Kim Thúy is a Quebec writer of Vietnamese origin and a renowned television host.

Born in 1968 in Saigon, she left Vietnam with the boat people at the age of 10 and settled with her family in Quebec. Graduating in translation and law from the Université de Montréal, she worked multiple jobs — as a seamstress, interpreter, lawyer, restaurant owner and chef, and television host.

In 2009, she published Ru (Libre Expression), a novel made up of autobiographical fragments. In it the author reflects on her childhood in South Vietnam and her exile in Quebec, her family ties and her autistic son, recounting various memories that are sometimes light-hearted and sometimes serious. The book was a success in Quebec and internationally. In 2023, it was turned into a film. Several more works followed, focusing on themes close to the author’s heart, such as exile, uprooting and memory: À toi (co-written with Pascal Janovjak, 2011), mãn (2013), Vi (2016), and Em (2020). Her books, with sales reaching one million copies, are sold in 45 countries and territories and translated into over thirty languages.

Kim Thúy has received numerous awards and honours, including the Governor General's Literary Award (2010), and was one of the four finalists for the Alternative Nobel Prize in 2018. She is a knight of the National Order of Quebec and a knight of the Order of Arts and Letters of the French Republic. In 2023, she was appointed to the Order of Canada and, in 2024, became a knight of the Order of La Pléiade.